Multi-hull vessels have experienced a tremendous popularity in recent years. In their initial stages of development, these vessels were provided either as large boats which could only be maintained at a slip or dock space in the water, or the much smaller catamaran which could be trailed on the highway. Because of the much wider beam of the catamaran compared to a conventional sailboat, only very small boats of the multi-hull variety could previously be trailed on the highway. As the cost of permanent dock space continues to sharply increase, maintaining a multi-hull vessel at a dock has become prohibitively expensive for many spare time sailors, resulting in the demand for various means to trail middle-sized catamarans so that they would not have to be kept at a dock.
The patent literature is replete with not only different trailer styles, but some rather involved hull designs and overall multi-hull vessel configurations which permit collapsing and towing of these vessels. Another approach, used for catamarans slightly larger than the readily trailable variety, is to elevate one hull reltative to the other on a trailer and tow the vessel at a steep sideways slope.
A solution which involves the present invention directly is a catamaran having a beam of 17 to 20 feet, which is obviously a great deal wider than the 8 foot maximum width permitted on most highways. This vessel has a pair of hulls which are strapped to cylindrical cross beams which maintain the 17 to 20 foot spacing when the vessel is in use sailing. These cross beams are unstrapped and a pair of short beams of the same diameter are substituted to keep the hulls together when they are separated from the main beams and collapsed together side by side for towing on a specially made trailer. This vessel is a wonderful sailer and can be conveniently towed on the highways so that the conflicting criteria of trailability versus wide beam have been eliminated by merging the advantageous characteristics of both types of vessel in a single boat. There remains one large disadvantage to this vessel, however, which the present invention is designed to eliminate. This disadvantage is the very long time, at least two hours for two people, which is required to assemble the boat at the launch site. Although this is caused by a number of factors, one major contributory factor is the requirement that the boat be assembled in its hull-together mode on board the trailer and launched in this barely seaworthy condition, with the hulls being later separated by forcing them apart on the long cross beams once the hulls are afloat. In addition to the likelihood of loss of small parts and other mishaps trying to accomplish this operation afloat, it is easy to understand that while crouched on a narrow hull in a choppy sea the problems of assembling the boat in expanded form are much exaggerated compared to the same operation if it could be performed in the comfort and safety of a land environment.